Cape Canaveral

“ Cape Cannaveral is on the Atlantic coast of Florida, being the projecting point of a long, narrow and low sandy island between Indian river and the ocean. Cape Florida is a promontory of the south-eastern coast of Florida, projecting to the south, and inclosing on the north-east the Bay of Biscino. Cape Sable is the extreme point of Florida. Every part of the coast of the Southern States is low and flat, without a single lofty headland to warn the navigator of his approach to the land. The peninsula of East Florida may be considered an immense cape, and much the largest in the United States. ”

“ On the north side of the Columbia are a number of resorts, to reach which from Astoria the tourist steams, as I have said, about a dozen miles to Baker's Bay, stopping at Fort Stevens en route. The jetty thrown out by the south channel of the Columbia has caused the north channel, close under Cape Disappointment, to be filled with the sand thrown over by the current of the river to the north side. This was formerly the entrance used by sailing vessels, which, in the early part of this century, came in under the shelter of the Cape and anchored in Baker's Bay, where they lay in safety. ”

“ The impressive scenery and bold picturesqueness all about attract many artists, who haunt the rocks and sea views of Cape Ann. The whole district is full of summer-homes, with flower-gardens and shrubbery amid the rocks and boulders, and the cliffs and ocean presenting an endless variety of changing scenery. The outer extremity of the Cape, long called Halibut Point, has been modernized into the Land's End, thus being rightly named as the termination of the great Massachusetts granite ridge, which falls away sharply into the sea. ”

“ Roe and Mr. Cunningham in a small bight round the north side of Cape Conway, for a meridional observation and bearings.
This Cape is formed by steep rocky hills, rising to the height of nearly 800 feet above the sea; the sides of which were so steep and so impenetrably covered by a thick underwood that we could not accomplish its ascent; we were therefore obliged to confine our observations to the beach. Tracks of natives were observed, and either a wrecked or a worn-out canoe, made of bark, was lying near the ruins of two or three bark huts. ”

“ Since my little paper canoe entered southern waters upon her geographical errand,—from the capes of the Delaware to your beautiful St. Mary's,—I have been deeply sensible of the value of Southern hospitality. The oystermen and fishermen living along the lonely beaches of the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia; the surfmen and light-house keepers of Albemarle, Pamplico, and Core sounds, in North Carolina; the ground-nut planters who inhabit the uplands that skirt the network of creeks, marshes, ponds, and sounds from Bogue Inlet to Cape Fear ”

“ Leaving the beach to continue down Cape, you come suddenly upon the strangest scenery of all, where the moors of Wellfleet and Truro swell out of the Bay in fantastic shapes, and merely condescend to allow the old County Road to pass through them—which it does not do easily. The hills have been softly rounded by time and the wind, and they rise sometimes to great heights, only to fall off into sheltered valleys where the scrub pines grow. It is a crazy-quilt of topography and color, nearly smothered by a blanket of wild cranberry that is glossy-green in summer and scarlet in winter. ”

“ Such clamor is unbelievable in the pearly haze of summer; but even then an infrequent nor’easter may whip the Atlantic into a hungry rage as if to send it leaping over the puny barrier that divides the outer uproar from the gray dogs of the bay that are showing their teeth to the gale.
Provincetown is a story in itself. The village, with its ingredients of old Cape Cod and a large proportion of handsome, gentle-mannered folk from the East Atlantic Islands, is curled comfortably about the edge of its harbor. ”

“ Admiral Rio d’Infanté landed there in 1498, and fixing upon the mouth of a river for the site of a settlement, recommended his countrymen to establish a colony there; his advice was, however, not followed, and other Portuguese navigators failed in some [5] slight attempts which they made to colonize this interesting part of Africa.
The Cape forms one of the great landmarks of the globe, separating the Atlantic from the Indian Ocean, and dividing the voyage to Hindoostan into two nearly equal portions ”

“ It is a time to spend indoors, huddled up to the warmth of stove or open hearth, while the sturdy Cape houses settle down into the wind to weather it out. Above stairs the old houses yield gently to the wind in a motion that is reminiscent of the roll of a ship at sea. Like the ship, they will ride out this storm as they have many another throughout a long two centuries.
When a Nor’easter has passed, or settled down to a dull roar, it is a time for the Outer Beach, that magnificent stretch of shoreline that skirts the Cape from Provincetown to Chatham. ”

“ One early Saturday in November I reached the Nauset Coast Guard Beach just as the peak of the high tide reached the shore and the unleashed fury of an angry Atlantic beat against the land to create one of the Cape’s most terrifying and awesome sights. The wind had shifted to the southwest and the sun was trying to break through the overcast but the seas piled higher and higher, as if through their own momentum. The whole surface of the sea was a menacing mass of tortured white breakers which threw their spume in smokey clouds a hundred feet into the air. ”

“ Our ponies met us at Muizenberg, and we crossed the railway-line on to the long white beach.
It was Easter Monday, and trainloads of inhabitants swarmed like gaudy bees round the bathing-huts. At no other time can one see to better advantage the wonderful fusion of races which has gone to the making of the population of the Cape Peninsula. ”

“ The great ice current, flowing down the east coast of Greenland and diverted by the Gulf Stream, sweeps round Cape Farewell and is closely packed along this shore until late in the season. Almost the whole coast, with numerous islands and entrances to the deep fjords, may be taken in at a glance from Cape Farewell, or at least from Cape Christian to Cape Desolation. It comprises the whole of the ancient colony of the East Bygd. Great precipices face the sea, with black mountains, 3000 to 4000 ft. high, rising above them. ”

“ Hence the coast, now very slightly indented, runs north by east until at Algoa Bay (25° 45′ E.) it takes a distinct north-east bend, and so continues beyond the confines of the colony. Along the southern and eastern shore the country is better watered, more fertile and more picturesque than along the western seaboard. Cape Point (Cape of Good Hope) stands 840 ft. above the sea; Cape Agulhas 455 ft. ”

“ Interspersed among bold mountain ridges we find light upland tracts and broad elevated plains. While, coursing through the rugged mountain gorges, the drainage of the country finds a path to the Indian or Atlantic Ocean, and even north to the Orange River, and is eventually discharged on the barren northwestern coast. Cape Colony can boast, even within the limits of the sections longest settled by the white man, some of the most picturesque scenery in the world. Hill and valley, barren plain and rich woodland, alternate to add beauty to the landscape. ”

“ The watercourses now became more intricate, growing narrower as I rowed southward. The open waters of the sound were left behind, and I entered a labyrinth of creeks and small sheets of water, which form a network in the marshes between the sandy beach-islands and the mainland all the way to Cape Fear River. The Core Sound sheet of the United States Coast Survey ended at Cape Lookout, there being no charts of the route to Masonboro. I was [207] therefore now travelling upon local knowledge, which proves usually a very uncertain guide. ”

“ The land on the north shore, near the west end of the strait, makes in many islands and rocks, upon which the sea breaks in a tremendous manner. The land about Cape Victory is distant from Cape Pillar about ten or eleven leagues, in the direction of N.W. by N. From the cape westward, the coast trends S.S.W.1/2 W. to Cape Deseada, a low point, off which lie innumerable rocks and breakers. About four leagues W.S.W. from Cape Deseada, lie some dangerous rocks, called by Sir John Narborough the Judges, upon which a mountainous surf always breaks with inconceivable fury. ”

“ The entrance from the sea, as we have already observed, is bounded on the south side by a flat sandy spit of land, stretching in to the ocean. This is commonly called Point Adams. The opposite, or northern side, is Cape Disappointment; a kind of peninsula, terminating in a steep knoll or promontory crowned with a forest of pine-trees, and connected with the mainland by a low and narrow neck. Immediately within this cape is a wide, open bay, terminating at Chinook Point, so called from a neighboring tribe of Indians. This was called Baker’s Bay, and here the Tonquin was anchored. ”

“ The coast from Cape Fear southward eighty miles, to Georgetown, South Carolina, has several small inlets through the beach, but there are no interior waters parallel with the coast in all that distance, which can be of any service to the canoeist for a coast route. ”

“ Having provided ourselves with water on the opposite coast of the continent, we set sail on the 23d with a brisk gale at S.S.W. directing our course for a town called Lovalia, in the bay of Panama. Next morning we passed in sight of Cape Passado, in lat. 0° 28' S. being a very high round point, divided in the middle, bare towards the sea, but covered on the land side with fruit-trees, the land thereabout being hilly and covered with wood. Between this and Cape San Francisco there are many small points, inclosing as many sandy creeks full of trees of various kinds. ”

“ In short, I am lazy and prefer to see some one else do it. This feeling generally passes away with the sheer joy of vacation days, days of freedom and fresh air; but I realize that the climate breeds a lack of ambition, to which I doubtless would succumb were I to live on without interruption amid the Cape-Codders.
And therefore I prefer to think of the Cape as a playground for the initiate, a wonderland for children, and a haven of rest for the tired of all ages, a land where lines and wrinkles quickly [9] disappear under the soothing softness of the tempered climate. ”

“ There is not a part of the United States that does not have its share of fascinating folklore. From the coast of California and its legends of gold, to the hardy New England shores, rich with its stories of shrewd Yankee peddlers, personalities and fables march back from the past and implant themselves into the region as firmly and lastingly as the giant redwoods of California or the huge elm-arches of Yarmouth on Cape Cod. ”

“ There is no rocky coast upon Cape Cod. The powerful swirl of waves into worn granite race-ways is unknown. Instead of rocks, there are long sand beaches curving as far as the eye can reach, cut, every few miles, by the opening of some little bay or harbor. There are no perils on a bold rocky shore equal to those of Peaked Hill Bars off the white Provincetown sand-hills, seizing vessels in their sunken traps and holding them there to beat in pieces. ”

“ Its greatest length is one hundred miles, and its greatest breadth eighty-five miles. The island is isolated from the mainland by the Strait of Canso, which is twenty-one miles long, and from one mile to one and a half in width. Cape North is about sixty miles from Cape Ray, Newfoundland.
[264] The representation of the coast of Cape Breton Island and of Nova Scotia as trending eastward and westward, as delineated on La Cosa’s map, evidently exemplifies the incorrect conjecture made by Giovanni Caboto respecting the situation of the first land seen by him. ”

“ And yet you wish for a minute that you could show them, show them where the little lane they just passed so quickly led to a view that would be breath-taking in beauty and good for their souls, show them any of a thousand things that are waiting for those who would see. For where under the sun, if not on Cape Cod, could anyone find such infinite variety of landscape and seascape crowded into so small an area? ”

“ Natives cross and recross Bering straits to-day on the ice and in primitive skin canoes, not unlike Cape Cod dories, which have not been improved in construction since the days of prehistoric man. Indeed, the primitive man may be seen at East cape almost as he was thousands of years ago. Evolution and development, with the exception of firearms, seem to have halted at East cape. ”

“ This rocky peninsula is truly a very wild and unworldlike little territory, jutting boldly out as it does into the mighty bay of Massachusetts, and commanding a view of its whole extent, from Cape Cod to Cape Anne, together with the many islands, towns, and villages scattered along the coast; whilst in front spreads out the Atlantic Ocean.
To sit within the upper gallery of this house upon the cliff, and watch the rising moon fling her golden bridge from the far horizon's edge, until it seems to rest upon the beach below, is a sight which would be worth something in a poet or a painter's eyes. ”

“ Like a sculptor working in clay, the ocean currents took much of the eroded cliff material and, carrying it both north and south, created the elaborate forms of the barrier beaches, barrier islands, and sand hooks that give the Outer Cape its characteristic filigreed coastline. Monomoy Island, North Beach, Nauset Beach, Coast Guard Beach, and Jeremy Point are some of the more prominent of these post-glacial landforms, enclosing such important estuaries as Pleasant Bay, Nauset Harbor, and Wellfleet Harbor. ”